Predator: I am?
by Cliff
Summary: Short Story. A group of soldiers in Alexanders army see a falling star and investigate


Predator: I am?  
  
My name? My name has been lost through the years of my live and many others I have gained through that live. It would take me to long to tell you my whole story so I won't even try but rather tell you of the first time I had met a hunter the beginning of my live.  
I was born to a relatively poor family in Macedonia during the rule of the King Philip II. My father had been a soldier who had died in battle for Macedonia and my mother, and family, had forced me the eldest son to join the military live as well.  
  
I was about twenty years old when Alexander the Great had taken the throne after his father's death. Alexander was truly a great master at the art of war and no battle where lost by his men.  
  
I was never proud of the fact I kill for him but the thought that my people benefited from it helped ease my mind. I was never a true soldier, I killed when I needed and I did as I was told but still I had no hart set into fighting even if it was for the better good.  
It had been a few nights after we had attacked Turkey and the soldier were celebrating after their victory. I on the other hand sat in the dark not needing the warm campfire, the wine or the drunken soldiers to keep me company.  
  
Many times had I stared up at the skies wonder if the gods were looking down on me? Never, in my mind, had I ever received an answer to my question until that night when I had seen a star falling form the sky disappearing on the horizon only to be replaced, for a second at least, by a bright light a explosion that lit up the horizon.  
  
It had been shocked for me to see such a sight and at the same time joy. A true star had fallen, a sign for the gods, and now it was no more then a days walk from the camp. I knew that if I had hurried I would reach it and be back before the men set off.  
  
Quickly, grabbing my food and water, I had started slowly sneak out of camp, it was never a good idea to be caught running from battle even if it wasn't the case few would see it otherwise and only sever punishment would lay ahead.  
  
Sneaking away from the camp I had thought myself out of sight, and for that matter harm, until I felt a large strong hand on my shoulder. Filled with dread and other such emotions I turned around only to be relieved by the sight of two other soldiers I casually knew, Alyoshenka and Andor, who didn't seem to look that angry at all.  
  
Andor was the first to speak up with a slight hint of nervousness, which most of us had grown accustomed to in the time we had come to know the little skinny farm boy. "Have you also seen the falling star?"  
  
"Of course he did" Alyoshenka said with a deep voice and slammed his giant fist on my back as a sign of male dominance. "He has the same plan as us, don't you? To go and see."  
  
The giant brute of a fool Alyoshenka was always the one to try and intimidate others even if he didn't know he was doing it even then he had been looking at me in a trying fashion. "Yes" I quickly answer and returned he mans gaze with my own.  
  
"Then you have two more companions joining you" Alyoshenka said and laugh at my attempt to stand up to him. It was clear that Alyoshenka could grab me and pull me limb from limb if he wished.  
We, the three of us, had walked for most of the night and by daybreak we had come to the mountain that we had seen the star fall on, or was at the very least close to it. The rocky mountain itself would have been an easy task to scale if it wasn't for the almost vertical angle that the mountain's side had and the quite loose sandy surface.  
  
We had set out to look for another way up and by luck alone Andor was the first to find something. "I found a route up, it a steep hill but we should be able to climb it" Andor told us when we all met again to report our findings.  
  
"Then lets us go, the rest of the army of Alexander should be leaving by no later then two days form now" I told the other two as to speed this, already slow, process.  
  
"Andor, show us the way" Alyoshenka ordered the small man and both of us followed him to the steep hill of which he had spoken of.  
  
The climb to roughly the top had taken us some time and by then we had all decided to rest for the night, with knowledge that by daybreak we would start the search early and find what we had seen land here the previous night.  
  
By the time we had set up camp it had become pitch black. We had already created a fire and I had spent my time warming myself by the fire while Alyoshenka and Andor spend their time drink and talking. I found it strange how Andor loosened up when drunk and acted just as manner less and vile as Alyoshenka.  
  
My two travelling companions had gone to sleep, or even passed out for that matter, quite earlier then they normally would in camp, leaving only me awake by the campfire. This opportunity had given me change to think of my family and everything I had done during battle, things I normally thought of when alone, but that was quickly disrupted by an inhuman scream that came from every corner of darkness that surrounded us.  
  
The scream chilled me to my bones and awoke my two drunken companions form there slumber. Both instantly grabbed arms and jumped to their feet with the wine still strong in their bodies, but that was the last thing the two could worry about.  
  
"What was that?" Alyoshenka demanded to know as he swung his sword in the air at blurred figures created by his intoxicated mind.  
  
I calmly stood up and looked around. Then I had dismissed it for an injured animal. I knew this was a desert and like most deserts the creature only came out at night when the temperature had slightly settled so it was also at night most predators would hunt.  
  
"I think I can hear something" Anchor shouted and pointed in the dark at where he had claimed to hear something.  
  
"Its nothing, Anchor, nothing" I tried to place the drunken mans nerves at ease but it did nothing but strengthen his decision that he had heard something.  
  
"I tell you I heard something" Anchor said and went silent. "There it was again, did you not hear it? It sounded like a young child."  
  
"You are drunk" Alyoshenka spat out, he himself not being the perfect example of sober.  
  
"I shall prove it" Anchor shouted in anger and lifted his sword and ran into the darkness quickly disappearing away from the light of the campfire.  
  
"Anchor, come back" Alyoshenka shouted to his friend in an attempted to get the little man to return.  
  
Alyoshenka then made his own little decision to go after his friend but by this time I was close enough to stop him. I grabbed the giant mans shoulder and pulled him back making sure not to stay to close to the quite volatile drunk.  
  
"If you go both of you will be lost" I reasoned with Alyoshenka and it seemed to work slighting claming the large man who already seemed to be afraid of going alone into the darkness.  
  
Alyoshenka and I had waited most of the night by the slowly dieing fire for Anchor to return but he didn't, and lucky neither did the scream. I thought about it for most of the night, thought about the changes that the monster that made the scream also did something to Anchor.  
  
I wanted to go and search for Anchor myself but it was dark and we would be lucky if we could see the cliffs edge before we fell over it. I decided we would rather search during the day, it was not a decision made of fear but rather of insight. If something had caught Anchor it would no doubt use the darkness to make itself invisible itself, something I back then didn't know it could do just was well in daylight.  
The next morning I woke up to see Alyoshenka ready to start the search for Anchor, who still hadn't returned. Alyoshenka was clearly fighting the pain of his hangover and was doing quite well.  
  
"I was about to wake you" Alyoshenka told me. "We need to find Anchor and you sleeping late only waste important time."  
  
"Yes, guess it does" I told Alyoshenka who seemed to be overly worried for his friend, who had most likely fallen off a cliff somewhere and was dead or would have to be killed because of injuries.  
Alyoshenka and I had search for quite a few hours before we had found something, something that back then, and still now, I wished I hadn't found. What we found was Anchors body or what appeared to be his body hung upside down from a wooden pale driven into the rock hard ground by amazing strength. The body was skinned like an animal and just below it hung its internal organs in a small pool.  
  
"Anchor, what monster had done this to you?" Alyoshenka asked looking at the eyes filled with fear still somehow in the corpses head.  
  
"We should bury the body" I told Alyoshenka who was grieving for the lost of his friend.  
  
"Yes, we shall bury him but we shall dig two graves and make the second one for the monster who did this" Alyoshenka told me, not of sound mind but rather thirsty for revenge.  
  
I looked around while Alyoshenka cut down Anchor. Not to far away from us laid all of Anchor possessions. I slowly walked towards then and picket up the sword and brought it back to Alyoshenka and handed it to the grieving man.  
  
"Thank you" Alyoshenka said receiving the sword that he placed on Anchors body. "I promise I will kill it" I heard him promise to his dead friend.  
We had separated into two groups of one and started our search, not to far from one another of course. The search itself heeded little but what had later happened to Alyoshenka was more information then either of us would want.  
  
From the corner of my eye Alyoshenka was to be seen looking around for sign of the monster the same as he had been doing since the search started. I had then only turned my vision away for a second but when it was returned Alyoshenka was gone from my sight.  
  
Back then I knew it was bad news and instantly started running towards where Alyoshenka had been standing. In less then a minute I had arrived and found a clear trail of blood leading away towards a large compliment of boulders. I had instantly pulled out my sword and followed the trail of blood, for the blood was not that of a human or any beast I could have recalled back then, the blood was a green colour and seemed to be glowing even in day light.  
  
I heard Alyoshenka voice when I came near the boulders. I had heard a clicking sound when I came near the boulders. I had seen Alyoshenka when I came running around the boulders. I had seen the devil when I came running around the boulders. I had wanted to run away but I couldn't it was too late.  
  
I was and am a tall man and this devil easily stood above me. I thought of Alyoshenka as a well-built man but this devil was even stronger in appearance then both Alyoshenka and I put together. Alyoshenka laid on the ground holding his arm which was bleeding while the devil held to large blade that came from his wrists, covered in human blood.  
  
"Beast die!" I shouted and lifted my sword bringing it down right on the devils open back cutting a gaping hole which would have killed a man easily.  
  
The devil swung around and hit me against the chest with the back of its hand flinging me, with little difficulty, a good few meters against the rocky, hard ground. While I laid on the ground I looked up at the devil staring into my soul. On its face is wore a mask of metal and had hair that appeared to be more like tentacles. Its skin was not human but on its skin it had several large scars. I knew little of the devils biology back then compared to now but even then it was clear that it had been badly injured and the scars where still healing, and some even still bled it green blood.  
  
It stepped towards me and looked at me, my sword was mere inches away from my hand, but still as hard as I tried to reach it remained unreachable. It looked into my soul through its mask and said in a voice it had stolen from Anchor's corpse. "I'll show them" then it disappeared in to the air itself leaving us alone.  
I had gained little injury during the encounter but Alyoshenka had a large wound over his arm and was badly beaten. It would have appeared the message from the gods turned out to be a message from hell in human form. But still it was my destiny and even now I am sure that the fates had meant for me to be there but the same could not have been said for Anchor.  
  
"We should tell Alexander about this" Alyoshenka told me as I attempted to bind the wound over his arm with a piece of cloth.  
  
"And what would he do?" I asked as I finished dressing the wound.  
  
Alyoshenka instantly grabbed me and pulled me closer until my face was no more then a few inch's away from his own, god I hated it. "He will help us kill this thing."  
  
"In that case you can go and call Alexander I shall stay here and meet my destiny" I growled out into the big fools face and ripped his hand loos. "What you waiting for run!"  
  
Alyoshenka had not left, if it was because of fear of the monster or fear of being alone, he had remained by my side. I had started a fire when it had become dark and did all I could, wait. Alyoshenka on the other had had found a 'save' spot amongst a group of boulders to hide.  
  
That evening I had thought of many things, from my childhood to the moment we had found Anchor's body. Trying to make sense of these things only made it worse. I had fought of myself as a educated man, priding myself in my knowledge of my religion and of the world we knew, but all that and I didn't even know what I was waiting for.  
  
The night had past and it was almost time for morning. Alyoshenka was whimpering something while I sat up looking at the horizon with my sleep- deprived eyes. The only thoughts on my mind where 'where was it? Why hasn't it come, yet?' but all those thing where soon answered.  
  
As I stared at the red rays from the sun appearing at the horizon I noticed a giant form, a glimmer like the air above a fire, standing before me. I had stared at it, my sword was in front of me but the devil was to close I wouldn't have been able to grab my sword, I was stuck.  
  
It had appeared out of fine air almost like it had vanished before and looked at me and all I could do was looked at it back. It was strange both us of were waiting for each other to make a move but neither I nor it wished to make the first move. Was it waiting for the right moment to move or giving me a change to make the first move?  
  
"Die devil!" Alyoshenka shouted at a volume I had never heard before. The large man drew both my and the devils attention as he came running at the devil with his sword firmly gripped in his angry fists.  
  
Something on it devils shoulder moved. It was a long round object which rested its self with a perfect aim on Alyoshenka. When Alyoshenka was no farther then a meter a bright blue light shot out hitting Alyoshenka in the chest, removing a large part of his chest.  
  
I saw Alyoshenka's expression grow grim as the pain hit his brain in a massive wave, but it was to late for him to stop now. For an unknown reason Alyoshenka was able to keep running, not hampered by a few more blue lights shot at him. He soon arrived in front of the devil and fell on his knees as blood flowed on the dry rock ground. With what little life Alyoshenka had in him he was able to plunging his sword in the devil stomach, clearly catching it of guard.  
  
The show would have been quite entertaining if I hadn't been sitting so close to it so I had rather used my time to grab my sword and head for cover while the devil was busy with Alyoshenka. I had reached the boulders where Alyoshenka had spent his time during the night and quickly hid behind them hoping I could at least gain enough time to think of something.  
  
I was scared I was not afraid to admit it, but to whom would I admit it if I would have died fearlessly like Alyoshenka did? What I had done was the best of my available choices and I regret nothing not even leaving Alyoshenka behind.  
  
I had heard the devils inhuman scream and the sound of flesh tearing. A few minutes later everything had become silent the next sound I heard was a clicking one above me but when I looked up I was met with the glowing eyes of the devil.  
  
I jumped to my feet and started to run, run the fastest I had ever ran in my live. Even with all me effort I was still caught. The devil had used some sort of net which had pinned me to the ground and slowly started tearing into my armour. Luckily I still had my sword and was able to cut through the net before it started cutting into my flesh.  
  
I knew not how but for some reason I knew it was standing behind me and instantly I swung around with me sword aiming at where I judged its stomach to be. While I had swung me sword I had closed my eyes for some reason but when I had opened them I saw my sword being blocked by two evenly spaced jagged blades that extended from its gauntlet.  
  
Realisation had come only seconds before the devil had kicked me square in the chest sending my to the ground. My armour had taken most of the blow but still it was a pain I had never felt before. I smiled as I felt some blood trickle over my lips, my sword was still in my hand, miraculously enough.  
  
I looked up again and saw the devil thrust its hand, which held the jagged blades, forwards to where my neck was. I had managed to roll out of the way and ended on my side looking at the two blades stuck almost complete into the ground.  
  
I had tightened the grip on my sword and jumped to my feet razing my sword above me head I was ready to bring my sword down on its back and hopefully kill it. To my unfortunate surprise the devil had moved much faster then I ever could have imagined and by the time I had starting bringing my sword down it had already grabbed my hands and lifted my of the ground.  
  
Strange how people notice important thing at the last moment just when it made the most difference. Before that I had noticed its wounds but not the severity of its wounds. The one or two wounds Alyoshenka had made were there along with many others, all relatively new in appearance.  
  
Perhaps the explosion I had seen in the camp could have caused the wounds perhaps some wild animals had attacked him or even some of its own kind. Who could tell not me for sure as my live hung by the hilt of my sword. But one thing I can tell you is that it must have hurt when I started kicking at its wounds with my legs.  
  
The devil released it grip of me and took a step back covering its injured stomach with it talons. This was my opportunity I had known it in my bones. I got ready grabbed a large rock in one had while in the other I held by sword. I trusted myself forward and time had seemed to slow down as I ran to the devil.  
  
Upon reaching the preoccupied devil I swung the rock at its face with just enough force to knock its mask of showing its inhuman face covered in four crablike mandibles and a heavy brow over its eyes.  
  
It looked at me their was no fear in its eyes not anger but a calmness, even after all these years I can still remember it. As I slowly buried my sword into its chest the same calmness remained even if it started to scream.  
  
It had retaliated by knocking me back again, this time my sword had left my grip and I was unarmed. As I fell to the ground I grabbed another rock and stood up standing still I looked into the devils eyes again. Both of us knew he was badly injured, my efforts did little but speed up the process.  
  
I lifted the rock to head level and looked at it as it slowly moved its one hand to the apposing forearm but when it looked at me again it stopped it motion to its forearm and slowly started walking to me, its blade shot out again from its gauntlet.  
  
I took a deep breath and threw the rock at him. The rock hit my sword, still struck in its chest, sending it slightly deeper. Slowly his one leg gave in below him and he dropped to his knees looking at me, still calm in the face of his death. Then he fell over and died.  
  
I had rested my weary body for a few hours before I stared making my way back to camp dragging him along with me. He was heavy but all I did was think of what they would say. The man who killed the demon from gods.  
  
I had, after a long weary walk, reached the camp to find everyone was gone I had been left behind. It was a terrifying experience being left in the desert with out any food or water the nearest settlement a good few days travel away, if you knew the way.  
  
I had started walking in a direction I thought I would find a village, still dragging the corpse behind me. After a few days I could not go on anymore and resorted to extreme measures to survive. I ate his flesh his inhuman flesh so that I could live my greed to survive and instincts made me forget about its smell or the taste.  
  
I had left his bones behind and started walking again, I had kept on walking for another few days until I passed out under the hot desert sun. When I had awoken I was in the company of nomads who had found me. Luckily I had removed my heavy armour long before I passed out or they would certainly have left me to die.  
The rest of my story is of little concern. Because of shame I had not returned to my family so I had travelled the known world looking for answer to what had happened to me, and during my travels I had noticed my youth always remained.  
  
I had been granted eternal youth when I had eaten him and I had seen many wonders during my long live. My past doesn't matter my names even less I am now only known as Scar for I had once lost my eye fighting a devil something I was destined to do. I had promised myself that for as long as I live I would hunt them, perhaps I might tell you of other adventure I have had but for now my it is the end of this story. 


End file.
